Report -ColÃ¡iste IosagaÃ­n, Ballyvourney, Co. Cork - Jan 2011

28DL Full Member

Inspired by reports from here by Rooks and irishmanlost, we decided to take a trip down and take a look over the christmas/new year slump. It's still very much the labyrinth to navigate with some the doors inside nailed shut. Overall it doesn't look like much has changed inside since the last reports except for a bit more writing on the boards and walls. Kids seem to like leaving daft messages in chalk like 'he's still here...' and 'death room' fairly harmless really. It's sad to see all the smashed sinks up on the dorm floors though, the place has been pretty much stripped of copper

Here's some history:
The building was opened by the state in 1940 as a prep school for teacher training. In 1960 it was bought over by brothers of the de la salle order and was run as a secondary level boarding school up until 1989. The brothers sold it to private investors in 1989 and the building has lain idle ever since. In 1999, it was acquired by the department for developing irish language and around â‚¬600,000 has been spent developing plans to convert the site into an education centre of some sort. Since the bottom fell out of the economy, it is unlikely that redevelopment will get underway any time soon. Most folks will be familiar with the college as the location for St Jude's reformatory school in the 2003 film 'song for a raggy boy'. Filming mostly took place on the ground floor which had to be redecorated to get the look of a much older building.

thanks for looking :) we had a great day out, even checked out St Gobnait's holy well while we were there, i'll spare you the pics - (not that it isn't a nice well), and the pub does a really good cheese and ham toastie